Over 45,000 overseas postgraduate degrees are unrecognised

Iraq’s higher education sector is grappling with a surge of unrecognised postgraduate degrees from private universities abroad, leaving thousands of students in limbo, reports Shafaq News.

Academics said that degrees from institutions in Lebanon, Türkiye and Iran are particularly affected, as they fail to meet the Iraqi government’s official recognition criteria. Regulations governing foreign degrees leave little room for flexibility. According to Higher Education Ministry spokesperson Haider Al-Aboudi, students funding their own studies must choose universities listed in the ministry’s official guide. “Only then can their degrees be authenticated upon returning to Iraq,” he told Shafaq News.

A shift in policy could soon be on the horizon. Amendments to Law No 20 of 2020 on Equivalency of Arab and Foreign Academic Certificates and Degrees have advanced through Iraq’s parliament. But even with legislative efforts underway, unrecognised degrees continue to pile up. A 2022 report from the Administrative Research and Studies Department at the Civil Service Council exposed the staggering scale of the issue: 101,519 graduates were excluded from employment eligibility, with only 33,861 permitted to apply for advanced degrees. Meanwhile, 45,690 degrees failed to receive official recognition.
Full report on the Shafaq News site